Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General may indicate an administration hostile to encryption and online privacy. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the incoming administration’s Attorney General pick, has long adopted a critical stance against encryption. He has stood in direct opposition to end-to-end encryption, citing his experience in law enforcement when calling for government officials to have complete access to encrypted devices. Earlier this year, Apple remained in a standoff with the FBI over allowing law enforcement agencies access to a locked device owned by a mass shooter in California, a move highly criticized by Sessions. Trump himself also opposed Apple’s stand while on the campaign trail, insisting that the company be boycotted. The selection of Sessions for Attorney General of the United States indicates that a Trump administration would be hostile to encryption, and would side with law enforcement agencies over tech companies when making legal and prosecutorial decisions. This gives privacy advocates cause for worry for the next four years. Downloads for Signal, Snowden-endorsed encrypted messenger, up post-election An upcoming Trump administration’s promised hostility towards encryption has not gone unnoticed by the nation at large. Following the results of the U.S. presidential election, Signal, the encrypted messaging app by …

The U.S. government is seeking the identity of Coinbase users for tax purposes, sparking fears that Bitcoin’s anonymity may be compromised. According to a legal summons filed in the Northern California District Court, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeks to identify several Coinbase users and their financial activity, based on evidence that they may have violated U.S. tax laws: “Based upon a review of the petition and supporting documents, the Court has determined that the “John Doe” summons to Coinbase, Inc. relates to the investigation of an ascertainable group or class of persons, that there is a reasonable basis for believing that such group or class of persons has failed or may have failed to comply with any provision of any internal revenue laws, and that the information sought to be obtained from the examination of the records or testimony (and the identities of the persons with respect to whose liability the summons is issued) are not readily available from other sources.” As indicated by the summons, two things are clear: one, the IRS has tracked Bitcoin-related activity sufficiently to be able to determine that certain users may not be in compliance with tax law, and two, this activity …

A Latvian startup known as 120 Minutes recently introduced a Telegram-Bitcoin integration called CallCoin, which is short for phone call and Bitcoin, to enable international calls via Telegraph approximately 10x cheaper than the standard pricing. On ArticStartup, a technology company & blog established to promote emerging communities, 120 Minutes CEO Dmitry Chuyenko introduced the company’s Telegram bot, which utilizes Callback instead of VoIP to provide private call services using Bitcoin. Chuyenko stated: “Callcoin is the first Telegram bot that provides call services and the first service that offers a winning solution with payments in cryptocurrency.” Mechanism & Privacy Chuyenko believes online privacy is the single most important feature that every user must be provided with. Thus, Callcoin utilizes Bitcoin, which with some technologies like Mimblewimble and CoinJoin could become anonymous in theory, and enables an endless generation of new caller IDs for additional privacy. Users can rent different phone numbers, change Caller IDs at will and check call histories on a single platform. “Users can top up their credits with Bitcoin and recharge codes, and send them to anyone. Plus, they can access their history, check the tariffs, rent a different phone number, set a Caller ID and set multiple numbers …

Alex Sunnarborg is the founder of Lawnmower, a blockchain investing and market data platform founded in 2015. In this opinion piece, Sunnarborg compares bitcoin’s attributes with those of the newly launched cryptocurrency Zcash, providing an overview of how he considers the market potential of each . With the launch of Zcash today (and the speculation surrounding it) you may be wondering how the decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency compares to bitcoin, the original digital currency. While many structural similarities to Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin design are obvious, Zcash utilizes advanced new cryptographic techniques to offer optional improved privacy and transparency, as well as its own unique blockchain. But, despite the differences, there is common ground. Zcash’s supply model is extremely similar to bitcoin’s, with a fixed and known issuance model that is cut in half approximately every four years. As well, there is a maximum of 21m units of both Zcash (ZEC) and bitcoin (BTC) which will be mined over time. Given these similarities, it’s easy to see why the price and market caps of the two assets are often compared. Cautious start Nearly eight years after bitcoin’s genesis block was formed, more than 15.75m BTC have already been mined (representing over 75% of the supply that will ever exist on its blockchain). Zcash’s developers …

For security agencies like the FBI there is no difference between Bitcoin and Monero regarding their use in the crypto market or the dark web, says Bitcoin Core Developer and Advisor to Coinkite, Peter Todd, to CoinTelegraph. All they want is “zero security systems with zero privacy.” Todd explains: “I will even word that a little differently: these people will only be happy when we have zero privacy security. Good security should give you good privacy – they’re not separate concepts.” European Drug Report 2016 on Bitcoin and Tor Todd’s view comes in the wake of a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction saying that the anonymous use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies allows for the purchasing of illegal items such as drugs or weapons. However, the payment may be traced and lead to criminal charges. Thus, a range of strategies are used to hide users’ identities and conceal the physical locations of servers. The report states: “These include anonymisation services such as Tor (The Onion Router) which hide a computer’s IP address when accessing the site; decentralised and relatively untraceable cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, for making payments; and encrypted communication between market …

CoinTelegraph contacted the eight major providers of Bitcoin debit cards with the question: Can Bitcoin debit cards really be private or anonymous? Below are the results, categorized by region and level of disclosure required. Financial privacy: Bitcoin vs. banks One of the main advantages of using Bitcoin over traditional funding methods is privacy. When a Bitcoin transaction is sent, its record is permanent and public on the blockchain, but not tied to any particular identity. Many users, such as those who frequented the Silk Road, prefer Bitcoin for exactly this reason: it’s anonymous and private. However, one of the major challenges of using Bitcoin is the limited number of merchants and services that accept it as payment. Enter Bitcoin debit cards, a product that takes Bitcoin and converts it into currency for use at traditional merchants. The challenge with Bitcoin debit cards is that, by and large, they tend to require the same level of financial disclosure of traditional financial institutions. While this is still an advantage over banks, which can shut down the account of a customer at any time under any pretense (especially under pressure from government), it still does not constitute financial privacy. Full identification (US) Coinbase Coinbase has …